05.01.09 Ben Long Scaffolding Sculpture, Grafik Annual, 2008

If you’ve had the pleasure of seeing artist Ben Long’s sculptures this year, you’re unlikely to ever look at building materials in the same way again. Long’s work has the admirable quality of appealing to people who thought they didn’t like or didn’t understand contemporary art and that’s the crux of his mission – to bring art to the uninitiated in everyday spaces. Our favourite Long endeavour in 2008 was Stag, a massive, elegant beast formed of scaffolding that stood majestically over a building site in Elephant & Castle for several months during the summer. Needless to say, the residents of Elephant got a sight for sore eyes. Even the builders enjoyed it.